Former 'murder capital' has cleaned up its act so dramatically it's turning into the new Brooklyn
Newburgh has for years been synonymous with crime, having among the scariest rates of gangland killings, robberies, and home invasions in the state of New York.
Now, the historic city seeks to turn the page on violence and squalor, and revive its pretty architecture as a place to raise kids and a destination for weekend breakers from Manhattan that's just 60 miles away.
Bars and restaurants are opening downtown similar to what you might find in Brooklyn and renovators are busy on projects, such as the Philip Johnson-designed Wolfhouse that's on the market for $3million.
Police in February said the city's shocking crime rates were falling, with a 25 percent drop in violent and property crimes making it safer than at any time this decade.
But history casts a long shadow. Newburgh has more poor, minority households than nearby Hudson Valley towns, and its social problems are stubbornly persistent.
In a heinous example, a local man was caged for life last month for shooting and killing a Newburgh mom, dad and their nine-year-old son in their family home in 2020.
For some, Newburgh's current tension between violence and gentrification are an echo of the city's long record of political turbulence.
It is where George Washington commanded his forces at the end of the Revolutionary War, and where he famously rejected the idea of becoming America's first 'king'.
Property prices in Newburgh, New York, doubled between 2020 and this year
Boutiques and restaurants akin to what you would find in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, have popped up in Newburgh. Pictured: Looking south just below Broadway on Liberty Street in Newburgh's East End Historic District
But parts of the city are still blighted by violence. Pictured above: a site where two people were shot and killed
Local scholar Richard Ocejo says Newburgh is changing fast, but questions if it will wholesale gentrify into an idyll with $300-a-night hotels, like nearby hotspots Beacon or Hudson.
'It doesn't look like the real estate investment in Newburgh will go away,' Ocejo told the Daily Mail.
'But it also doesn't look like the conditions that give rise to these high crime rates are being addressed either.'
Newburgh was once a prosperous transport and industrial hub on the Hudson River, but many of its businesses migrated to reduce costs after 1960, and shops relocated to out-of-town malls.
By the early 2010s, its population was 80 percent non-white and the Bloods, Latin Kings and other gangs ruled the streets, selling drugs, racketeering, and robbing.
Gangsters killed more than a dozen people in just two years; New York Magazine dubbed Newburgh the 'murder capital of the US' in September 2011.
But with this macabre scourge came the opportunity of lower property prices.
Middle-class New York City residents who'd been priced out of the city started buying up spacious homes there for even cheaper than they were at other spots along the Hudson.
Savvy investors were snapping up historic Victorian, Italianate and villa style fixer-uppers on the cheap, says Ocejo, author of Sixty Miles Upriver, a book about Newburgh.
Many were renovated into Airbnb rentals to cater for New York City residents seeking weekend breaks on the river and a chance to go hiking and visit wineries in the Catskills.
Newburgh is just 60 miles from Manhattan and an easy weekend trip for New Yorkers
This mid-century Newburgh home was renovated and went on the market for $2.9million
Two New York City creatives bought it for $650,000 and spent $1 million on a four-year renovation
Luxury properties are often just blocks away from rows of boarded-up homes in Newburgh
The trend only accelerated in the pandemic, when work-from-home culture took hold.
Perhaps the jewel in the crown of Newburgh's reinvention is the Philip Johnson-designed Wolfhouse, a boxy, two-story house, perched atop a sloping hill by the river.
A pair of New York creatives bought the run-down property for $650,000, and spent four years and $1million on restoration before putting it on the market for $2.9million
Meanwhile, upscale restaurants such as Blu Pointe and Ms Fairfax have sprung up downtown and on the waterfront, charging $30-a-dish New York City prices to visiting foodies.
Property prices have soared. In 2000, the average Newburgh home sold for $200,000.
Five years later, they change hands for twice that amount.
'You can't really get any good deals any longer,' says Ocejo, a sociology professor at the City University of New York.
The changes have shaken up the city of 28,000 people, where incomes for most residents haven't kept pace with gentrification, he adds.
The average household brings in just $51,000 each year, far less than the $80,000 state average, 2023 US Census Bureau data show.
That doesn't go very far, now the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $26,600 a year, according to Zillow.
The average household brings in just $51,000 each year, far below the state average
Local scholar Richard Ocejo wrote about the rapid pace of gentrification in Newburgh
Savvy investors snapped up Newburgh's architectural gems for cheap in the early 2000s
Ocejo and other locals describe a 'tale of two cities' - well-heeled, educated newcomers live in refurbished mansions just blocks away from boarded up shopfronts and crime hotspots.
All the while, Newburgh continues to make headlines with its horrors, such as the fatal shooting of Jimmy and Shatavia 'Tati' Crisantos and their son Giovanni Tambino, nine, at their home.
The killer, Kaliek Goode-Ford, 35, deemed 'truly irredeemable' by prosecutors, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In another crime to shock the Hudson Valley, three young Newburgh men were indicted this week over the fatal shooting of a taxi driver in September 2021.
District Attorney David Hoovler released a press release about another 'horrific and senseless' attack in the city.
The violence on Newburgh's streets today recalls its turbulent history, as the place where Washington led the military campaign that ended British colonial rule in 1783.
There, Washington famously placated the 'Newburgh conspiracy' of mutinous, unpaid soldiers, and rejected suggestions in the 'Newburgh letter' that he become the newborn nation's king.
Newburgh, then just a hamlet, turned a corner after America's war of independence, as new sloop and turnpike routes opened it up to trade and visitors.
The city is again at a 'critical point' in its history, says Ocejo.
George Washington commanded the Continental Army from Newburgh in the last year and a half of the Revolutionary War
Washington delivered his 'Newburgh Address' there to placate unpaid officers in March 1783
This time, Newburgh's future hinges on attracting enough investment for new building at scale, and larger companies with enough white-collar jobs to support a population of skilled workers.
Even then, he says, officials must still grapple with the many residents being priced out of the shiny new city on the river.
'That's the part of the story that should never be left out,' he adds.
